Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/John Fairbairn (writer)

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. Noting that this doesn't mean that Fairbairn is not a nice person, a talented player, or anything other than him not meeting our rather strict inclusion (notability) guidelines for living persons. Lankiveil ^{(speak to me)} 05:48, 25 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

John Fairbairn (writer)[edit]

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I'm simply not entirely sure if he's notable and granted some of his work is from the 1970s and '80s so sources may be offline and I found a few online here, here (very few) and here (very few as well) but I'm not seeing anything particularly significant or good coverage. SwisterTwister talk 06:33, 15 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Delete I can find two books that he wrote, neither which would rise to notability for a writer. On the UK Go site, he's not even among the highest ranked players, so he doesn't achieve notability as a player. He apparently wrote for the UK Go community site, but that appears to have been a kind of informal "club" of afficionados, not something with editorial oversight. I'll check back to see if anyone finds more in the Go community that would make him notable. LaMona (talk) 16:09, 15 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of England-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 01:27, 16 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Australia-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 01:27, 16 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Language-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 01:27, 16 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Games-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 01:27, 16 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Keep Disclaimer: I am a longstanding UK & British Go Association Go-player, and help on WikiProject Go.

John Fairbairn is well known and revered in UK Go (game) circles and beyond.

He's written 2 series of books, 7 separate books, and translated some, according to his bio on Sensei's Library (SL)).

Note that SL - whilst itself a Wiki - is one that WP happily accommodates, as a respected Go-source.

Fairbairn alone shares the distinction of a WP presence with Wikimedia's own Charles Matthews.

Trafford09 (talk) 10:12, 16 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It appears that users create and update their on pages on Sensei's Library, so those user pages can't be considered wp:RS. It is also a wiki, possibly limited to members of the group but still hard to fit into the WP concept of third-party, reliable sources. Of the four references on the page: #3 is SL; #4 is a site that Fairbairn is a founding member of, thus not a 3rd party source; #2 is a 404 but I think the same page can be found here [1], and that's the one that seems to show that he's not in the highest level of players. The remaining reference, #1, is a reference to a magazine that he wrote for, which doesn't seem to be a reference about him. So in terms of references, they aren't strong. I can find his books listed at publisher and sales sites, and at other Go sites [2], [3]. If any of these are significant in the genre, speak out. Thanks. LaMona (talk) 20:05, 16 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Comment John is an old friend and colleague of mine, so I wouldn't want to vote on this one. He is certainly notable in his field of go scholarship. http://gogodonline.co.uk/faq/ notes that the game collection includes Fairbairn's Names Dictionary for go, a serious work of research which I believe is unrivalled in English, and probably in western languages generally.

Just as an example of the standard of his research, here is a forum post: [4]. The encyclopedia mentioned there was a CD-ROM production up to recently. Charles Matthews (talk) 10:23, 16 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Delete Does not pass notability guidelines for academics, authors or sportspeople.John Pack Lambert (talk) 16:43, 16 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Delete While no doubt a knowledgeable person in his field, the information/references available do not show that he meets the notability guidelines for inclusion on Wikipedia. PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 11:52, 24 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.